Posthumous execution is the ritual execution of an already dead body.

In Christian countries until relatively recently, it was believed that to rise on judgement day the body had to be whole and preferably buried with the feet to the east so that the person would rise facing God. A Parliamentary Act from the reign of King Henry VIII stipulated that only the corpses of executed murderers could be used for dissection. Restricting the supply to the cadavers of murderers was seen as an extra punishment for the crime. It follows that if one believes dismemberment stopped the possibility of resurrection on judgement day, then a posthumous execution is an effective way of punishing a criminal. Attitudes towards this issue changed very slowly in Britain and was not manifested in law until the passing of the Anatomy Act in 1832. However for many of the British population it was not until the 20th century that the link between the body and resurrection was finally broken. Respect for the dead is still a sensitive issue in Britain as can been seen by the furore over the Alder Hey organs scandal when the organs of children were kept without parents' informed consent^[1].

Examples include:

• Pope Formosus (died 896), whose body was exhumed by his successor, Pope Stephen VII, dressed in papal vestments and seated on a throne to undergo a "trial", later known as the Cadaver Synod or the Synod Horrenda. Found guilty, the body was stripped, three fingers from its right hand cut off, and the corpse thrown into the Tiber.

• John Wyclif (1328–1384), who was burned as a heretic 12 years after he died.

• Vlad the Impaler (1431–1476), who was beheaded following his assassination.

• King Richard III of England (1452–1485), who was hanged by his successor King Henry VII following his death at the Battle of Bosworth Field. His body was further desecrated following the Dissolution of the Monasteries and, according to legend, cast into the River Soar.

• Pietro Martire Vermigli (1500–1562), who was burned as a heretic following his death.

• A number of the regicides of Charles I of England had died before the Restoration of King Charles II. Parliament passed an order of attainder for High Treason on the four most prominent deceased regicides: John Bradshaw the court president, Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton, and Thomas Pride^[2]. The bodies were exhumed and the first three were hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. The most prominent was the former Lord Protector Cromwell, whose body after said "punishment" was thrown, minus its head, into a common pit. The head was finally buried in 1960. The body of Pride was not "punished" perhaps because it had decayed too much. Of the regicides still alive ten were executed and others either fled or were imprisoned. For a full list see List of regicides of Charles I.

• François Duvalier (1907–1971), Haitian dictator, whose body was exhumed and ritually beaten to 'death' in 1986.

Notes

1. ↑ Alder Hey organs scandal: the issue explained by David Batty and Jane Perrone Friday April 27, 2001 in The Guardian
2. ↑ Journal of the House of Commons: volume 8: 1660-1667 (1802), pp. 26-7 House of Commons Attainder predated to 1 January 1649 (It is 1648 in the document because of old style year)